Employees of Foodland Super Market Ltd. got special treats from the company as the kamaaina grocery store chain marked its 65th anniversary May 6, kicking off its anniversary celebration that will extend to the end of the year.
Foodland Chairwoman and CEO Jenai Wall made store visits, delivering 65th-anniversary T-shirts to employees and giving them treats including cake, as well as a gift card for an in-store party, said Sheryl Toda, director of corporate communications.
The first store was the Market City location, which opened May 6, 1948. There are now 32 Foodland, Foodland Farms and Sack N Save stores. A new Foodland at Kehalani Village Center in Wailuku, Maui, is set to open early next year.
The company had for a time operated some grocery stores under the Emjay’s brand name, a play on the first initials of company founder Maurice J. "Sully" Sullivan’s name.
The 65th anniversary is "a great tribute to ‘Sully’ Sullivan and … to Jenai and the family as they continue on," said Jim Tollefson, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii. "They should be really proud of that accomplishment, and not only to survive, but to be thriving."
The stores employ 2,500 Hawaii residents.
Among them, Herman Deuz Jr. will be marking his 50th year of working at Foodland in October, Wall said. A receiver at the Ewa Beach store, "he keeps saying he’s going to retire," Wall said.
"We celebrate years of service at our company, and there’s so many of our team who will say they started with us right out of school and never expected that they would stay — and they’ve continued to stay on and had their careers working with us," she said.
As company officials began planning for the 65th anniversary, there were discussions about "why 65 years is important to you," Wall said.
One of the most meaningful things, she said, "was that employees talked about how proud they were that we remained a local company and that they were working for a local company that supports the community."
"My dad always really believed in the importance of giving back … and believed Foodland wouldn’t be around without the support of the community," Wall said.
To get the most bang for its giving-back buck, campaigns were devised to engage customers in the giving, "to support the things our customers want to support," Wall said.
One is "Shop for Better Education," which started out as a way to raise money for schools to buy computers and has morphed into a scholarship fundraiser. Another program began with a customer on Maui who contacted Foodland in the early 1980s saying she wanted to buy turkeys from Foodland and give them to needy families, but she didn’t know how to get them to the right families.
Foodland put "Share a Holiday Feast" together in cooperation with the Salvation Army. Customers would buy turkeys, and Foodland "would throw in the fixin’s," she said.
"Give Aloha," a community matching-gift program, was started in honor of store founder Sullivan. Foodland invited all nonprofits to participate, and customers can donate to their nonprofit of choice at checkout. Foodland would match a portion of that gift.
Initially Foodland’s match was to max out at $100,000, "but customers donated the $100,000 within the first week," Toda said. The family chipped in thousands more in order to honor the pledge.
Last time ’round, in September, the four-week program raised $1.9 million.
What’s next for Foodland? "Hopefully another 65," Wall said.
